Yeah, it's nutty, with an accentless Dracula popping up in the old west like the ultimate dirty old man, leering at and biting the neck of just about every nubile young woman who wanders by. Somehow, Drac ends up at the very ranch where Billy the Kid has gotten a job in an attempt to hang up his bad guy ways. Whew. Still in all, you get a lot of the always wonderful John Carradine, playing Dracula yet again, and even better, his main nemesis isn't actually Billy the Kid, but instead Mrs. Olsen from the long ago Folger's coffee commercials!!! She is an immigrant Swedish/German woman who knows Dracula's real agenda, and is much more of a thorn in his side than the mostly ineffectual cowboy hero. So there you go--you old monster movie buffs should definitely check this one out!

This is uttered by Virginia Christine (the alluring Anaka in 1945's THE MUMMY'S CURSE) when Melina Plowman tells her that her "uncle" casts no reflection in the mirror. Another pithy line of dialogue, one you'd never expect the legendary vampire to make, is (to his "niece") "Marry a notorious gunslinger? I won't hear of it!" Carradine as Dracula comes across as merely a crochety, vaguely sinister, eccentric uncle with an elitist attitude against immigrants. The actor frankly seems in his, uh, cups, but do you blame him? On the other hand, Chuck Courtney brings a surprising believablity and bantamweight handsomeness and likability to Billy the Kid; he looks somewhat like Audie Murphy, which also helps. Melinda Plowman as Dracula's object of lust, looks like one of those Noxema girls from the 1960's t.v. ads for that skin cream. The strings on the shlocky flapping rubber bat are clearly visible, oh, what joy! Right from someplace like "Eddie's House of Horrors" on Hollywood Boulevard, probably where they also got that shiny big red bow for Dracula.

Another source of delight is the wide eyed, dopey, open mouthed look of stupefaction and wonder on the young German girl's face as she realizes who Carradine is. The old female doc is played straight, and there is something appealing about the dusty, Hollywood/old Wild West 101 atmosphere, with its pleasantly juvenile shootin', fightin' and ranchin' atmosphere, oddly made more pleasant by the juxtaposition of the silly and cheesy vampire-comes-to-town-to-stir-up-the-locals story. This movie is best enjoyed either in a "matinee" time frame, say around 2 p.m. on a Saturday afternoon, or at 2 a.m. that same night.

MORD39 RATING: ** out of ****

Okay, we know that this is a silly premise with an elderly John Carradine in the Count Dracula role, but as far as "bad" movies go, it's definitely much more fun than most other trash. At the very least, it's miles and miles better than its totally boring companion piece, JESSE JAMES MEETS FRANKENSTEIN'S DAUGHTER.

Carradine is deliciously sinister as Dracula, and the story does flow nicely. No awards given here, just a fun afternoon matinee item that is FAR from Carradine's "worst" film. The actor himself often referred to this movie as the lowest of his career, but this was probably because the outlandish title stuck in his mind.

If you want to see truly UNWATCHABLE John Carradine garbage, there are literally DOZENS worse...ASTRO ZOMBIES and GALLERY OF HORROR to name but two.

With a title like this movie has, it's obvious that the film's creators had no great pretense--they KNEW they weren't making Shakespeare! However, despite the stupid title and a very low budget, the film isn't quite as bad as it sounds. It really isn't good, but at least the actors and director tried to make a film that is reasonably watchable, as they played it straight throughout--as if they expected people to actually watch and respect a film called BILLY THE KID VERSUS Dracula.

John Carradine plays the Count, though it seems that the writer had never seen a vampire movie before, since so much in this film violates popular vampire lore. For example, here Dracula walks around during the daytime, does not sleep in a coffin, his face magically lights up in red when he's hypnotizing people and wolves-bane drives him away--as if he's the wolf-man! And, as far as acting goes, Carradine was the worst of the actors in the film--looking more like the Devil and over-acting throughout. The Dracula he plays in this film is considerably different than the one he more subtly played in HOUSE OF Dracula and HOUSE OF FRANKENSTEIN. While the cape and top hat and bright red bow might have fit into these two earlier vampire films, here he just looks pretty stupid out West--especially when no one even questioned this flamboyant attire.

As for the plot, the old vampire shows up, inexplicably, in the West and meets up with an amazingly civil and law-abiding Billy the Kid. Mr. The Kid is in love with a cute lady but she is also the focus of Dracula's lust. In the end, they battle it out (of course) in a rather limp conclusion--it's one of the most anti-climatic ends in monster history.

All in all, this is a bad movie but not the type that you'd enjoy watching (like PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE). It's more the type that just makes your brain hurt due to its ineptness and dull script.

Too bad the movie really blows.

Dracula (John Carradine) is (for some reason) in the West. At a small town he falls in love with pretty Betty (Melinda Plowman). But her boyfriend is a reformed Billy the Kid (Chuck Courtney) who will fight Dracula to keep her...

Sounds better than it plays. Carradine later said this was the worst film he ever did...and he was in over 300 films! He hams it up as the Count and they shine this stupid red light on his face whenever he's hypnotizing somebody. And get a load of that rubber bat! Carradine was also too old and frail to play Dracula--he was 60 and looks it. Plowman is actually OK as Betty and Courtney tries as Billy...but he's all wrong for the role. For starters he's pretty short, is in just OK condition and has BLOND hair! I think he got the role cause he does know how to ride a horse. Also the script is horrible with just incredibly bad dialogue. There are continuity errors galore; Dracula leaves FOUR holes when he bites people {???}; sunlight doesn't affect him and Carradine doesn't even wear fangs.

In it's defense it was shot in bright color (at least in the print I saw), moves quickly and has one cool effect shoot--when Carradine is carrying Plowman from her bed we see there's no reflection in a mirror--just Plowman seemingly floating in mid air. So this IS bad--real bottom of the barrel stuff--but fun to watch in a silly sort of way. Worth checking out for laughs. I give it a 1.

"The West's deadliest Gunslinger against the World's most diabolical Killer!"--Ad Line.

This is one TERRIBLE feature!

I first learned about this dud (movie?) in a Winter 1966 issue of Monster World magazine (a lesser companion magazine to the more popular Famous Monsters of Filmland) which gave both Billy the Kid Vs. Dracula and its co-feature the lamentable Jesse James Meets Frankenstein's Daughter considerable coverage (Ouch!). I believe Billy the Kid Vs. Dracula was theatrically released in March or April 1966 in the Toronto (Canada) area. When I discovered that John Carradine was cast as Dracula being a naive kid at the time I foolishly thought that it might be a pretty exciting film (after all John Carradine DID make a very good Count Dracula in the Universal Pictures classics House of Frankenstein and House of Dracula both of which I had seen on television).

It's not the idea of a legendary monster coming to America which is the problem here (it had been capably done before in The Mummy's Tomb, The Mummy's Ghost, The Mummy's Curse, Son of Dracula, Revenge of the Creature, The Return of Dracula, etc.) but this Kiddies' Matinee Frightfest is SO inept and amateurish completely lacking any sense of the appropriately spooky atmosphere, mood or directorial verve and cinematic mastery on the part of William "One Shot" Beaudine.

John Carradine's sickly, frail looking and dentured Count Dracula is just TOO old (despite the slick brilliantine hair dye job) and his intended "bride" the bland, wide-eyed teen Betty Bentley (lamely portrayed by the untalented Melinda Plowman) is just TOO young for the aged, supernatural Grandpappy (a true odd couple!). Further making an already abysmal situation even worse is the film's screenwriter who shockingly displays virtually NO understanding or knowledge about the Vampire King at all! This Dracula is able to freely go about during the daylight hours, he drinks whiskey (Olde Red Eye?), his deportment and delivery of dialogue completely lacks any genuine continental bearing or aristocratic flair and Carradine's campy, creaky performance of the Count is much more akin to a cheating, unscrupulous gambler from Baltimore circa the mid-1800s rather than a dignified nobleman from Transylvania.

It is a sad commentary that Mr. Carradine (a truly fine character actor) was humiliatingly relegated to this kind of unworthy trash in his later film career particularly when one recalls some of his great work in films like Stagecoach (1939), Drums Along the Mohawk (1939), The Grapes of Wrath (1940) and The Return of Frank James (1940) to name but a few. Interestingly Mr. Carradine would have a good supporting role as Cruikshank the shady English butler in Munster, Go Home! released later the same year as Billy the Kid Vs. Dracula.

Bullets don't affect the Vampire yet when Billy the Kid hurls his empty six-shooter at old Drac's noggin he actually knocks him out and how about that absurdly dumb visibly string-operated rubber bat poorly utilized in those scenes where this hilariously bobbing and wobbly contraption flutters out-of-sight behind a conveniently stationed bush followed by an obvious "break" in the filming after which Dracula immediately pops out from the same obstruction thereby attempting to imply that the bat has somewhat discreetly transformed itself into Dracula .

Lastly dig those numerous, unsubtle red lighting effects projected onto Count Dracula's leering (and bleary-eyed) visage. Just awful!

Pertaining to Carl K. Hittleman's uninvolving and soporific script who can possibly forget such priceless tidbits of dialogue as when Dracula contemptuously refers to Billy the Kid's friend and ally the stalwart, pistol-packing Dr. Henrietta Hull (Olive Carey) as a "backwoods female pill slinger?" The Bounder! The Cad! The Chauvinist!

As a historical footnote this outrageous, Poverty Row travesty came out at the height of the Batman (ABC 1966-68) craze on television!

A couple of things that I will say about Billy the Kid Vs. Dracula to its credit (and Jesse James Meets Frankenstein's Daughter) is that it was actually photographed in COLOUR (next to John Carradine's salary the colour film and lab processing was most probably the film's second highest or perhaps single highest cost expenditure) and reliable Republic Pictures serial villain Roy Barcroft is cast in an atypically sympathetic role of Sheriff Griffin (maybe HE should have played Dracula instead?).

Actually if you are really interested in a GOOD Horror Western film than check out Curse of the Undead (1959) starring Eric Fleming, Michael Pate and Kathleen Crowley which is a much better effort. Michael Pate portrays a mysterious, gunslinging Owlhoot with vampiric tendencies named Drake Roby who stalks the Old West and sets his sights (and fangs) on an attractive lady rancher. It's available through MCA-Universal Home Video.

Billy the Kid Vs. Dracula was commercially issued on home video (along with its co-feature Jesse James Meets Frankenstein's Daughter) in the mid-1980s through Embassy Home Video (Embassy Pictures theatrically released both films) but has long since been discontinued (I happen to have both which I bought on sale--REAL CHEAP!).

Jesse James Meets Frankenstein's Daughter has been recently released again on home video through the MGM-United Artists "Midnight Movies" series so I think it's a reasonable assumption that Billy the Kid Vs. Dracula will also be made available once more (just what the World really needs).

Thankfully there were no similar follow ups like The Daltons Against the Wolf Man, Cole Younger Meets Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde or Johnny Ringo Vs. the Invisible Man......Hmmmm!

Silly is the key word in BILLY THE KID VERSUS Dracula: the clash of genres could have been interesting - as Count Dracula, ostensibly originating in the middle-ages and being able to turn into a bat, would have no real problem showing up in the Old West - but this is exploitation fare pure and simple and no attempt to contrast the wildly diverse cultures is made, except from the caricatured portrayals of two superstitious immigrants. Carradine apparently is still wearing the same set of clothes he had donned for the two Universal films back in the 40s, but his performance here is far campier: it was side-splitting to see him roll his eyes till he literally became red in the face (his put-down of an earnest and elderly doctor as a "backwoods-female-pill-slinger" is priceless, however)! There was very little atmosphere of any kind; as for special effects, these were virtually non-existent (the bat creature, in particular, is incredibly phoney-looking). Worst of all, the fireworks promised by the title never happen as Billy The Kid, which history painted as a vicious criminal, is here depicted as a reformed, law-abiding citizen and is even made to carry the film's icky romantic interest!! In short, a fun film for all the wrong reasons - and I can't say that I'm looking forward to viewing its companion piece, JESSE JAMES MEETS FRANKENSTEIN'S DAUGHTER (1966)...

This is one of my favourite bad movies. Rubber bats, Western backdrops, and John Carradine as Dracula. Someone shines a red light on Carradine's mugging face during the scary scenes. It's hypnotically awful, but I'd only recommend it to those with a love for real trash. It seems to be pretty unique, but I haven't seen the companion piece, Jesse James Meets Frankenstein's Daughter.

While the title is laughable, the production values were okay, as was the cinematography. The acting was...well...less than wonderful, but not bad enough to ruin the fun. Poor John Carradine..."Lo how the mighty have fallen" is about all one can say regarding his appearance in this film, but even old actors have to eat & pay bills, so we forgive him. There were quite a few old favorites working in this one. Roy Barcroft (everyone's favorite "bad guy" in almost all of the Rocky Lane movies), Bing Russell (yes, Kurt's daddy), Harry Carey Jr. with only a few lines early in the film, his mom, Olive Carey,(remember her from "The Searchers"?) as the town Dr., and a few others whose names won't ring any bells but whose faces are instantly recognizable to anyone who has ever seen a Western or a Cop movie/TV show. It was also fun to see the old Corriganville Movie Ranch sets again...a lot of fond memories for us old Western actors there! Chuck Courtney (the star),was quite a horseman. Watching him ride & handle his mounts was almost enough to make you forget that crummy rubber bat. He did a credible job of acting, & his fast draw skills were very good. I did some stunt work with him many years ago, & he was well respected in the industry as both a daring stuntman & a competent stunt coordinator. When you did a fight scene with him, it always looked real & no one got hurt. All in all, this movie is not a "great" horror classic, but it is fun to watch as light entertainment. A real "popcorn & beer" film for late night viewing.

In the great cinematic tradition of showdowns, "Billy the Kid versus Dracula" rests somewhere near the weirdest corners. This movie tells the tale of Billy the Kid, now a ranch hand, and his relationship with the beautiful Betty Bentley, whose ranch represents the movie's main set piece. When Betty's mysterious uncle (Carradine) comes to town, bad things start to happen, beginning with the murder of a young woman. When Billy the Kid discovers the uncle's nefarious plans to transform Betty into a vampire, he must stop him at all costs. This is a very hammy B-Western and although the story is ludicrous, the cast are taking their roles seriously. John Carradine hams it up, Lugosi style, while the rest of the cast struggle their way through the formulaic and predictable script. The print looks very fuzzy, but that goes with the territory. Aside from the shoddy print, this was actually a decently budgeted and produced movie, so don't expect a train wreck. We got a couple good laughs, but it wasn't hilarious. Overall, "Billy the Kid versus Dracula" is more of a weird B-Western than a unintentional comedy. Its hokey, cheesy fun, but almost entirely forgettable. ---|--- Reviews by Flak Magnet

This film has a lot to offer for those of us who love bad movies. The rubber battery-operated bat, the horrible dialogue and irritating characters (especially the German/Austrian immigrant lady), and especially the obscure placement in time of the film: the 1800s town set; Billy's 70s style ranch house--complete with bead curtain!; even the hallway above the early 1900s saloon which I think was a hallway at the movie studio. John Carradine, following his scripted eye cues very closely ("open eyes real wide"), gives hickeys and utilizes his amazing ability to stop the film and move off-camera. Chuck Courtney wears the same shirt throughout the entire film (costume budget woes, I imagine) and manages to knock out Dracula by tossing his gun at him! Oh yeah, and Carradine's red-faced "I'm horny!" look is priceless, even without the red flashlight. A true gem.

There are no real spoiler alerts necessary here since the title pretty much summarizes the movie.

For western fans and fans of classic Hollywood cowboy-movie actors and actresses though, this inexpensive little film is a goldmine. As a for instance, it was Olive Carey's last film. Her son, Harry Carey Jr. is in it as well, along with Virginia Christine, Bing Russell, Roy Barcroft, Marjorie Bennet and stars John Carradine and Chuck Couurtney, one of Hollywood's best stunt men. Courtney gets to really show off his cowboy chops doing both a Pony Express mount AND a running jump into the saddle using a hitching post as a step.

As for the movie, it's no worse that the other "Dracula in America" movie starring Lon Chaney Jr. But as a "hey, isn't that...?" movie, it's a treat. Just don't go looking for the 1931 Dracula which has not been and probably never will be equaled.

Fun movie to watch with friends who enjoy such things over pizza on a Saturday night (especially if you can catch it on a show like "Svengoolie", including behind-the-scenes background, spoofs, and jokes). Interesting take on the Dracula story. No worse than an episode of the '50s "Lone Ranger: TV series, plus you get DRACULA -- played by the great John Carradine twenty-odd years after he did so in the original "House of Frankenstein" and "House of Dracula". He's obviously in it for the paycheck, but rises to the occasion and gives it the old college try. The rest of the cast do, too, with campy sincerity.

Loved the paper mache "bats", not to mention the "historical accuracy" of a "reformed Billy th Kid" living happily ever after, after driving a stake through Drac's heart. Good clean fun. :)

The immigration situation was really getting out of hand in the Old West -- they were taking in vampires and gypsies into the old towns! Dracula (never named that in the film actually) is flying around stalking a German couple with their blonde daughter attempting to bite the girl at every turn. Drac is thwarted and decides to take a stage coach into town when he discovers a babe at a ranch and wishes to mate with her.

Biting an Indian maid and getting the whites blamed, Dracula uses this scenario to fake his identity as James Underhill, a never-seen-before uncle, to take care of poor Betty, whom he saw in a locket belonging to her now-dead mom. Oops! The best thing about "James" is that the very unbelief of his vampirism keeps him safe. As the German woman in the film says, no one believes it until they're dead! The Billy the Kid character is a bit rough around the edges and is quite corny in his naiveté and fighting skill. We only see one or two actual gun fights -- one gun fight won against a tin can and the other against a ranger who was gunning for Billy.

This James Underhill character is a riot. He walks around in the day time that is supposed to be evening, and the "vampire bat" looks like a little cardboard toy! And the very dumb blonde who will be Drac's mate pooh-poohs everything and does not understand why the German couple freaks out whenever they are in the same room with Drac.

Virginia Christine, a great character actress who has appeared in many Sixties TV shows including The Rifleman, etc. makes an appearance as the all-knowing gypsy woman who knows all about vampires -- though why Drac does not react to the cross around her neck I'll never know.

The director William Beaudine is known for his cheap thrills films. I believe he made Jesse James Meets Frankenstein's Daughter, another gem that I must see! DVD: Except for a quick bio of the director and John Carradine (whose crazy stare and red face must be seen to be believed!) there are no extras. There is an interesting 50s ad for Orange Crush and an intro by Julie Andrews on the awesomeness of the MPAA Code.

Bottom Line: John Carradine is pretty rough in this piece. He is suave in his acting but when he attacks he growls like a bear! And Chuck Courtney as Billy the Kid is such a pansy, getting his butt kicked more than once. Must see the cheese!

The odds makers were giving 1000 to 1 against Billy out-dueling Dracula for his girlfriend. Drac had everything going for him, the curious ability to withstand the glare of the intense Western sun, the skill, without any visible fangs, to inflict 4 neck puncture wounds instead of the standard two, the capability to generate a frightening red hot glowing light on his face while hypnotizing his victims, AND the talent to single handedly decorate a dull, abandoned cave with a red velvet-covered bed suitable for deflowering naïve virgins.

As for Billy, his Ms Goodytwoshoes girlfriend had him so domesticated that he couldn't even win a simple fistfight with a rebellious cowhand, much less bring down the undead.

Billy the Kid vs Dracula opens the door to a whole bunch of intriguing match-ups between sinister historical characters. What about the Boston Strangler vs the Fiend without a Face?

This was filmed back to back with "Jessie James Meets Frankensteins Daughter" in the same Simi Valley ranch by William Beaudine who use to be a very capable director. I think this is just campy fun to watch! The story starts out with Dracula (John Carradine) on a stagecoach and he see's a picture of a young girl and is instantly attracted to her. That night Dracula kills a young Indian girl and the rest of the Indians attack the Stagecoach and kill everyone on board. Dracula assumes the identity of a Mr. Underhill and goes to meet his niece who has never met him. The niece is Betty Bentley (Melinda Plowman) and the ranch that her family owns has a foreman named William Bonney (Chuck Courtney) and the two of them are in love and want to get married. Dracula arrives and he introduces himself as Betty's uncle and he takes charge of the ranch. He also starts to make plans on making Betty his bride! An immigrant couple recognize him as a vampire because he had killed their daughter and now they try and warn Betty and William. This film plays as a regular vampire story and not as camp but with the low budget and a script that isn't careful about vampire do's and dont's it can't help but become camp. Carradine was pretty old in 1966 and he appears frail so when there are scenes that require physical effort a stand-in was used. Take a good look when Dracula is supposedly carrying Betty, you can't see his face. Carradine dyed his hair black for this role to try and look younger. I also liked Plowman in this film, she was a steady television actress during the 50's and 60's and she was extremely beautiful to look at. I personally could understand why Dracula was so infatuated with her. I probably would have done the same thing if I was in his shoes! If anyone knows whatever happened to Melinda Plowman please let me know. The ending was pretty shabby when Billy the Kid throws a gun at Dracula and knocks him out! And then uses a railroad spike. Everyone knows it has to be a wooden spike! But you have to expect these inconsistencies from these films. Thats part of their charm! Also, for you trivia buffs out there...Olive Carey plays Dr. Hull and Carey is the mother of Harry Carey jr. who also appears in this film as the wagon master! Silly and inconsistent film is actually fun to watch. I think it lives up to its incredible title. Look out for those rubber bats on a string!

Despite the ludicrous premise laid out in its title, "Billy the Kid Versus Dracula," of a historical Western gunfighter battling a supernatural, bullet-proof vampire from a Victorian-age gothic horror novel, the film isn't so bad that it's good, and it's not good enough to be other than bad. The filmmakers seem to have taken it seriously, which is often a recipe for such silly screenplays to become unintentionally funny, but the problem is that the film is competently made, despite its silly story and low budget. Yet, preventing the film from being good is that there's nothing intelligent in it, and its relative competence is due largely to it imitating Universal's Dracula series--the wolf's bane, which Universal substituted for garlic from Bram Stoker's novel, gives it away.

Director William Beaudine had directed films since 1915, including Mary Pickford vehicles in the mid-1920s, so the technical competence of this B-picture should be expected. The plotting is especially decent, creating most of the drama during the Discovery and Confirmation phases of the Complex Discovery Plot--the usual plot employed for horror films, as outlined by cinema scholar Noël Carroll. And, the runtime is thankfully short for a feature. John Carradine starred as Dracula in Universal's "The House of Frankenstein" (1944) and "The House of Dracula" (1945), so, of course, he's perfectly credible in the role once again this time, and he, at least, seems to have tried to camp it up some. Chuck Courtney also looks the part of Billy the Kid, and the rest of the cast is serviceable, as well. Even the vampire's mesmerizing stare, the fake bats and the stop-substitution appearances for Dracula have been done amusingly worse in films before and after this one. The stereotypical Native Americans, the scenes filmed during the day that are supposed to be set at night, and the bland dialogue are too routine.

I did find the scene of Dracula hitching a ride in a horse carriage a bit amusing, as it reminded me of Jonathan Harker's ride to Castle Dracula in Stoker's novel, where fellow passengers warned Harker about the vampire. Instead, the passengers in this film are rightly a bit spooked that they're sharing a carriage with the undead. In addition to the wolf's bane, the film borrows some other parts from other movies. Dracula as an identity thief had been used in "Son of Dracula" (1943) and "The Return of Dracula" (1958). And Dracula being fascinated by an image of a woman is a common trope in Dracula movies which originates from the 1922 "Nosferatu."

(Mirror Note: The doctor confirms Dracula's vampirism by revealing his lack of a reflection in a mirror. The through-the-mirror shot shows Betty, whom Dracula is carrying, to seemingly be floating in mid-air.)